Although the dollar ended the day relatively unchanged against the other majors, it failed to avoid some choppy intraday price action. Stronger productivity numbers were offset by weaker factory orders, Redbook retail sales and the pending home sales report. Even though the dollar rallied when productivity was revised higher to 4.7 percent from 4.1 percent in the third quarter, the gains were short lived once the 10am EST reports were released. Factory orders rebounded in the month of October, but given the exceptionally strong durable goods report that we saw for the same month, the 2.2 percent rise fell short of expectations. The deal killer though was the exceptionally weak home sales report for the month of October. Although the index is fairly volatile, it just reported a 3.2 percent drop in pending home sales, which is the first back to back slide since last December. We have been warning about a slowdown in the housing market for some time now. With interest rates and mortgage costs on the rise, we see a corresponding increase in the risks that the real estate market faces. Today, there was an article on Bloomberg touting the slump in the mortgage bond market. According to the piece, “Bonds backed by home loans to the riskiest borrowers, the fastest growing part of the $7.6 trillion mortgage market, have lost about 2.5 percent since September on concern an 18-month rise in interest rates may force more than 150,000 consumers to default.” Meanwhile, the weekly retail sales report published by Redbook also reported a 0.3 percent drop in sales for the week ending December 3rd. Before becoming overly concerned though, it has been quite standard to see a drop in sales the week following the Thanksgiving holiday. Tomorrow will probably be just as dull as today with consumer credit being the only release scheduled on the US economic calendar.

Euro

The trading range is contracting in the EUR/USD as the currency pair ends the day relatively unchanged. Today’s Eurozone economic releases painted a very similar picture to the service sector PMI reports released yesterday. According to the Bloomberg retail PMI reports, retail sales contracted in Germany and France while accelerating in Italy. The region’s two bigwigs are really lagging in growth based upon recent reports and that is certainly concerning. Yet, any pessimism was erased following the release of German factory orders for the month of October. Orders jumped by a more than expected 2.0 percent thanks to a sharp rise in both foreign and domestic orders. Of mild interest was also a speech by ECB member Hurley who confirmed the central bank’s hawkish but conservative stance. He said that interest rates are still low but the ECB needs to continue monitoring economic data closely before making their next decision. At this point, the market is also treading carefully. The hawkish but conservative comments from both sides of Atlantic has been swayed more to the US’ favor for some time now. We expect this to continue to be the case unless either camp shifts their stance markedly.

British Pound

Although the British pound ended the day unchanged, it staged quite a significant intraday recovery. The pound had dropped over 100 pips within an hour after the negative industrial and manufacturing data spurred speculation of a possible interest rate drop. Yet as the day went on, the pound was able to crawl back to post only a small net loss for the day. Industrial production, which was expected to gain 0.2 percent from September to October, actually dropped by 1 percent during the month with a year over year decline of 1.8 percent, 6 times the loss predicted. This is the largest decline in seven months. Manufacturing production, also expected to gain 0.2 percent during October, fell 0.7 percent in the month and 0.9 percent from October 2004. These depressing announcements add to the evidence that the industrial recession seen in the UK may persist despite recent indicators that seemed to hint otherwise. The prospects of a faltering economy have kept traders of the pound on edge as they watch the Bank of England’s policy makers for indications of a move in their rate stance. However, since the August drop, the Bank of England has moved away from even truly considering this policy, staying stagnant at a 4.5 percent target rate as the economy seemed to be stabilizing. Now, with the industrial sector poised to fall back into recession, the option of cutting rates may have re-entered the agenda of the Bank of England. Although it is still widely predicted that they will keep rates unchanged at their meeting this Thursday, a second rate cut may be pending in the near future as the US Fed continues to raise rates.

Japanese Yen

The Japanese Yen came near its 32 month lows against the dollar and touched record low against the Euro before rebounding. The currency’s continued weakness is being fueled further by comments from Japanese Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki which indicated that officials are not going to resist the slide in the yen. Echoing comments made over the weekend at the G7 meetings in London, Tanigaki indicated that officials were not uncomfortable with the 15 percent decline of the currency thus far. This lack of opposition to the slide, along with a continually widening interest rate differential, opens up the yen to further declines as the dollar nears its largest annual gain against the yen since 1979. Traders shrugged off a seemingly important data release for the yen this morning which showed that overall household spending rose 2 percent from a year earlier during October. Although overall household spending declined by 0.1 percent in a month over month measure, the annual increase was still higher than expected and was the second rise in three months.

Forex Trading News

Forex Research

Daily Forex Market NewsForex news reports can be found on the forex research
headlines page below. Here you will find real-time forex market news reports
provided by respected contributors of currency trading information. Daily forex
market news, weekly forex research and monthly forex news features can be found
here.

Forex NewsReal-time forex market news reports and features providing
other currency trading information can be accessed by clicking on any of the
headlines below. At the top of the forex blog page you will find the latest
forex trading information. Scroll down the page if you are looking for less
recent currency trading information. Scroll to the bottom of fx blog headlines
and click on the link for past reports on forex. Currency world news reports
from previous years can be found on the left sidebar under "FX Archives."

Veteran FX Trader, Max McKegg, forecasts all the Major currencies and the Australasians; providing Daily and Medium Term Trading forecasts to subscribers, who include large Banks the world over, as well as individual traders in more than 30 different countries.

Are you
looking for your first broker or do you need of a new one? There are
more critical things to consider than you might have thought.

We were trading long before there were online brokers. Global-View
has been directly involved with the industry since its infancy. We've
seen everything and are up-to-data with recent regulatory changes.

Forex Forum

The Global-View Forex Forum is the hub for currency trading on the web. Founded in 1996, it was the original forex forum and is still the place where forex traders around the globe come 24/7 looking for currency trading ideas, breaking forex news, fx trading rumors, fx flows and more. This is where you can find a full suite of forex trading tools, including a complete fx database, forex chart points, live currency rates, and live fx charts. In addition, there is a forex brokers directory where you can compare forex brokers. There is also a forex brokers hotline where you can ask for help choosing a forex broker that meets your individual fx trading needs. Interact on the same venue to discuss forex trading.

Forex News

The forex forum is where traders come to discuss the forex market. It is one of the few places where forex traders of all levels of experience, from novice to professionals, interact on the same venue to discuss forex trading. There is also the GVI Forex, which is a private subscription service where professional and experienced currency traders meet in a private forex forum. it is like a virtual forex trading room. This is open to forex traders of all levels of experience to view but only experienced currency tradingprofessionals can post.

Currency Trading

Currency trading charts are updated daily using the forex trading ranges posted in the Global-View forex database. You will also find technical indicators on the fx trading charts, e.g. moving averages for currencies such as the EURUSD. This is another forex trading tool provided by Global-View.com.

Forex Brokers

The forex database can be used to access high, low, close daily forex ranges for key currency pairs, such as the EURUSD, USDJPY, USDCHF, GBPUSD, USDCAD, AUD, NZD and major crosses, including EURJPY, EURGBP, EURCHF, GBPJPY, GBPCHF and CHFJPY. Data for these currency trading pairs dating back to January 1, 1999 can be downloaded to an Excel spreadsheet.

Forex Trading

Forex chart points are in a currency trading table that includes; latest fx tradinghigh-low-close range, Bollinger Bands, Fibonacci retracement levels, daily forex pivot points support and resistance levels, average daily forex range, MACD for the different currency trading pairs. You can look on the forex forum for updates when one of the fx trading tools is updated.

FX Trading

Global-View also offers a full fx trading chart gallery that includes fx pairs, such as the EURUSD, commodities, stocks and bonds. In a fx trading world where markets are integrated, the chart gallery is a valuable trading tool. Look for updates on the Forex Forum when the chart gallery is updated.

Forex Blog

Global-View.com also offers a forex blog, where articles of interest for currency trading are posted throughout the day. The forex blog articles come from outside sources, including forex brokers research as well as from the professionals at Global-View.com. This forex blog includes the Daily Forex View, Market Chatter and technical forex blog updates. In additional to its real time forex forum, there are also Member Forums available for more in depth forex trading discussions.

WARNING: FOREIGN EXCHANGE TRADING AND INVESTMENT IN DERIVATIVES
CAN BE VERY SPECULATIVE AND MAY RESULT IN LOSSES AS WELL AS PROFITS. FOREIGN
EXCHANGE AND DERIVATIVES TRADING IS NOT SUITABLE FOR MANY MEMBERS OF THE
PUBLIC AND ONLY RISK CAPITAL SHOULD BE APPLIED. THE WEBSITE DOES NOT TAKE
INTO ACCOUNT SPECIAL INVESTMENT GOALS, THE FINANCIAL SITUATION OR SPECIFIC
REQUIREMENTS OF INDIVIDUAL USERS. YOU SHOULD CAREFULLY CONSIDER YOUR FINANCIAL
SITUATION AND CONSULT YOUR FINANCIAL ADVISORS AS TO THE SUITABILITY TO YOUR
SITUATION PRIOR TO MAKING ANY INVESTMENT OR ENTERING INTO ANY TRANSACTIONS.